Assessment of Soil Quality and Sustainable Management of Some Agricultural Land Using Pedological Soil Indices and GIS

This research aims to assess sustainable management of some agricultural lands through the adoption of soil quality indices and preparation of maps by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).The study area is 1080.59km², located in the Al-Huwayja district.Twenty-five soil samples were selected from the surface layer (0-30 cm) of soil.The soil physical and chemical properties were determined according to standard methods: soil texture, bulk density, and EIROM(soil erosion index), as well as soil chemical properties such as EC, OM, gypsum, calcium carbonate, cation exchange capacity (CEC), available phosphorus, and total nitrogen.The spatial distribution of soil quality indices (SQI) was prepared using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) tool and kriging method in the ArcGIS program.Soil quality was assessed using geometric method and a fuzzy logic approach, in which individual soil indicators were transformed into fuzzy membership values.Objective indicator weights were derived using the entropy weight method, and the final FSQI was calculated by weighted aggregation of the membership scores.GIS was subsequently used to map the spatial distribution and area of the resulting soil-quality classes.The results showed that differences in pedological soil characteristics, with the dominant texture for sandy soil, were achieved, with sand content ranging up to 70% or higher.Electrical conductivity in most samples did not exceed 2 dS m -1 , and soil organic matter content did not exceed 2% in most samples, while the available phosphorus (P available ) and total nitrogen (TN) content were decreased.The results show that FSQI produced a stronger concentration in the intermediate class.Moderate soil quality occupied 946.76 km² (87.61%), compared with 100.21 km² (9.27%) of Good, 30.16 km² (2.79%) of Poor, and 3.46 km² (0.32%) of Very Good land.While, FSQI covered a substantially broader numerical interval within its own scale, from 30.964 to 84.528, with a mean of 51.543 and a median of 49.470.Site classification produced four levels: 4 sites (16%) were Poor, 14 (56%) were Moderate, 6 (24%) were Good, and 1 (4%) was Very Good.Accordingly, sustainable management should focus on maintaining and protecting high-quality areas from degradation.In contrast, Moderate areas should be prioritized for targeted interventions, particularly through soil fertility improvement, enhancement of organic matter, and conservation agriculture practices.